Thursday, October 29, 2009

Healing Questionairre

This little gem has been floating around the blogsphere the last few days, so I thought I'd chip in with my meager knowledge and opinions. Here's to Jessabelle at Miss Medicina for starting this chain of events. Who knows - maybe Monger will pick it up and add his Priestiness to it.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer? Amathalanea, Paladin. Holy, Prot, Ret.

What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why? Flash of Light. It hits moderately hard, is hasted down to the GCD, and gets a 100% bonus from +healing. Mix in the synergy with Sacred Shield, and you've got a decent baseline heal going.

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why? The smart-alek answer would be Lay on Hands, simply because of the long CD - though I do use it when running flags in WSG. Of the base set of heals, I'd say Holy Light. With the changes to mana regen, HL seems to just punch holes in my mana bar for a lot of overhealing. This isn't to say it can't be used, but the days of mindlessly spamming HL are long gone. Using HL requires a mix of JoW melee to keep things even.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why? Unless something happens way outside my control, the tank and I are going to live. Paladins can deliver a high throughput indefinitely with FoL spam, and can really punch up the massive healing when we have to. Using a combination of Cooldowns and smart output, Paladins can really pour out the big heals for an extened period of time.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why? Lack of a true AoE heal, even if it isn't a smart one. Dpeneding on the damage coming out, it will take me 5 GCD to hit an entire party - or slightly longer if HL bombs are required. Unfortunately the HL splash is largely wasted in many fights, and you get a lot of overhealing.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you? Double healing tanks. BoL on one, watch the other - and keep an eye on the raid. I can't stand healers that get tunnel vision. Having an assignment is fine and dandy, but I do a lot of PvP healing or 10/5 mans. In those instances you can't just focus on one person. Also when a player dies while a healer is standing right next to them not doing anything...that's unacceptable.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why? I've only ever really healed with a shaman and a paladin - though I did play with a druid for a while. I'm really in love with my paladin, and even though I have several 80 alts, and many lowbies, I just enjoy the versitility of the paladin.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why? I guess I'd say my shaman, but that's only because I'm kind of bored with him - not because I think shamans are bad healers.

What is your worst habit as a healer? Trying to be Superman. If I'm paired with healers I don't know I have a tendency to start picking up their healing 'slack' if I percieve any. I don't care about the healing meters, but I alwasy hate seeing someone die when I have an instant or some other save available.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing? I hate to copy an answer, but it really is that person who calls for healing, or lets me know they've died. My UI is geared for maximum input of information. Between DBM, Grid, and my headus up healing - I can see pretty much everything going on.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing? Sure. I wouldn't necessarially want to do 25 ToGC with just Paladins, but I wouldn't want to do it with just Priests either. Each class has strengths and weaknesses - it's just a matter of your personal playstyle. I have 2 lifesaveing CDs for my targets (HoP and LoH), plus various other hands, cleanses, and some really big heals. Plus I bring JoW or JoL to the table, and some sizeable buffs.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer? Everyone alive and I have some mana left? It's a win. While I'll check effective healing vs overhealing, I raid with a Disc Priest. Our healing styles are very complementary, so it's just knowing that I pumped out what I could and I wasn't carried. Analyzing a raid with World of Logs helps as well. I don't really relay on recount, except to make sure that nothing dumb happened. I'm more inclied to use the Grim Reaper feature than the meter feature.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class? That we're Overpowered because of our high throughput. Yes, I can pump out 15k heals for a long time, but I'm not doing much more than that. We're not great mobile healers, but I can still heal Hodir without getting 2 stacks of the debuff on me.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn? You can't just spam one button. Finding the balance between FoL and HL, using HS and SS to boost FoL heals, and working with your other pallies, not against them.

If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)? High overhealing from JoL procs, a high crit rate, and a high focus (in a 25) as I'm usually on just a pair or three targets.

Haste or Crit and why? Int. It gives me Crit, mp5 via DP/Replen, SP, and mana. Between Crit and Haste I'll take Crit for the mana return and big heals. My FoL is already nearing the soft haste cap, so it's not as crucuil to get any more haste.

What healing class do you feel you understand least? Resto Druids or Priests. I understand their basic spells, but that's like me saying I understand the basic curses of a Warlock. I know what they use, but not the best rotations or ideal matchups (synergizing Pennance with FH for example).

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing? Grid (without clique) for my raid frames, though I can do what I need with just the stock UI. I have some pally mod for tracking SS and BoL, but I use that more for tanking as I have Grid setup to show the same info. My macros are just my "OH NOVOS" buttons linking my crit CD with HS/FoL, and Divine Shield/Divine Sacrifice in one macro.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why? Int > Crit > SP > Haste > Mp5. Even though Illumination was nerfed, Int still has the biggest bang for the buck.